[Nomad]

After getting them around 6 months ago, the SR-Omegas became my favorite headphone even from an average SRM-T1 amp, over R10s, L3000, K1000s, Qualias, PS-1s, ... you name it (most of them almost as its best, using V20, DHA3000, EMP AE... as partners). I even prefer it to the HEV90-HE90, although they were close. YMMV but for me they seem to be the one, at least by now.

So I started a crusade for more SR-Omegas. They are not serviced anymore so if my current pair fails... I'm screwed. I was lucky to find a German shop that had a last pair New Old Stock (after months of daily search). I wasn't that lucky in the sense that they charged me the full European retail price (I'd say more) but it was worth it anyway.

They arrived yesterday and now they are charging stators. I'll compare both pairs later. First impressions are that they smell even better than the L3000 or L3000G from new and the box is really light and beautiful (although delicate).

I'll try to scan the Owner's Manual if I can (pretty busy these days).

Anyway... I wanted to share this with you... It's been said that there were changes in the SR-Omega in order to improve the reliability of the cans. Nobody knows the serial number when these changes started to apply. One of the changes seem to be the "Orange sectors" on the cans that started being metallic and they changed to black plastic ones later. I have #223 and (now!) #397 and both of them seem to have the same "Orange sectors", so I'd guess that (at least) any SR-Omegas over #223 are the late production ones. Who knows, perhaps any over, let's say, #100 are late production. This I don't know. All I can say is that at least any can over #223 should be late production. I hope this helps.

Good luck and happy hunting.

 

[Rob N]

Congrats on finding another pair,NOS as well

 

[nextcube]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nomad One of the changes seem to be the "Orange sectors" on the cans that started being metallic and they changed to black plastic ones later. I have #223 and (now!) #397 and both of them seem to have the same "Orange sectors", so I'd guess that (at least) any SR-Omegas over #223 are the late production ones.

Orange Sector? I'm not sure what you mean, could you please describe these "sectors" in more detail? Maybe I could fill in the blanks on the production changes.

 

[Carl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nextcube Orange Sector? I'm not sure what you mean, could you please describe these "sectors" in more detail? Maybe I could fill in the blanks on the production changes.

 

[nextcube]

Carl, you quoted me and...?

Nomad,
By "Orange Sectors", are you referring to the five small plastic spacers on each side of the headphone?

 

[Nomad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nextcube Orange Sector? I'm not sure what you mean, could you please describe these "sectors" in more detail? Maybe I could fill in the blanks on the production changes.

Sure. I'm talking about that radial mesh that splits the circle on 8 parts, as you can see here:

However, in the real pictures it seems like it is darker:

And reflections and lighting can be confusing too. So I didn't know if that metallic orange sectors were actually painted on black, which would easier to confuse with the whole piece being made of black plastic. When I was looking at the mesh on the #223 it seemed black plastic (late production) but I couldn't be sure as it could have been metal painted on black. Now that I have the #397 with me (which sure is late production, hence plastic) I can see that both mesh have exactly the same color and light reflections so that means that the #223 was having the plastic mesh already, hence being late production too.

 

[nextcube]

Nomad,

The Omega transducer consists of the following parts, excluding spacers:

1. Metal guard mesh, black
2. Dust cover, polymer film
3. Cartwheel-shaped fixation/support disc, plastic or aluminium
4. Gold-plated copper mesh stator
5. Diaphragm, 1.5 micron polymer film
6. Gold-plated copper mesh stator
7. Cartwheel-shaped fixation/support disc, plastic or aluminium
8. Dust cover, polymer film
9. Metal guard mesh, black

The gold-plated copper mesh stators (4&6) are kept flat and rigid by the cartwheel-shaped fixation/support discs (3&7) glued onto them. These support discs divide the gold-plated copper mesh stators into 8 sections.

I'm only aware of two fixation/support discs in production: one in transparent plastic, and one in aluminum. neither painted black.

- Michael

 

[Nomad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nextcube Nomad, The Omega transducer consists of the following parts, excluding spacers: 1. Metal guard mesh, black 2. Dust cover, polymer film 3. Cartwheel-shaped fixation/support disc, plastic or aluminium 4. Gold-plated copper mesh stator 5. Diaphragm, 1.5 micron polymer film 6. Gold-plated copper mesh stator 7. Cartwheel-shaped fixation/support disc, plastic or aluminium 8. Dust cover, polymer film 9. Metal guard mesh, black The gold-plated copper mesh stators (4&6) are kept flat and rigid by the cartwheel-shaped fixation/support discs (3&7) glued onto them. These support discs divide the gold-plated copper mesh stators into 8 sections. I'm only aware of two fixation/support discs in production: one in transparent plastic, and one in aluminum. neither painted black. - Michael

You obviously know more about it than I do, Michael

I got that information from Carl, that there were two fixation discs in production, one metallic looking like metal and another plastic ones in brown color (sorry, I said black before, my mistake). And that the metallic came first, then the plastic ones.

So they were transparent plastic and aluminum... Do you know which was first?

Cheers!

 

[Carl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nextcube Carl, you quoted me and...?

I fail at hotlinking. No matter, Javier did what I was intending to do anyway.

There were two versions of the Omega drivers, and you can tell them apart based on whether they have metal or plastic supports.

 

[nextcube]

Well,

My hotlink failed right here too.

 

[nextcube]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nomad I got that information from Carl, that there were two fixation discs in production, one metallic looking like metal and another plastic ones in brown color (sorry, I said black before, my mistake). And that the metallic came first, then the plastic ones. Cheers!

Well, Carl got that information from me under the "Stax SR-Omega reliability issues" thread http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...light=sr-omega

The transparent plastic stiffeners seem to be the first type, therefore making the aluminium the later second type.

If you recall the original location of the picture of the transducer (i.e. http://staxt2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/stax1.htm), you may notice that this particular pair of SR-Omegas depicted on http://staxt2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/stax/sr_omega.JPG has the serial #492

 

[Carl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nextcube Well, Carl got that information from me under the "Stax SR-Omega reliability issues" thread http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...light=sr-omega

I've read a number of comments in Japanese that back that up.

Quote:

The transparent plastic stiffeners seems to be the first type, therefore making the aluminium the later second type.

My memory has it the other way around. Then again, it is 3.50am...

Quote:

If you recall the original location of the picture of the transducer (i.e. http://staxt2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/stax8.htm), you may notice that this particular pair of SR-Omegas depicted on http://staxt2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/stax/sr_omega.JPG has the serial #492

Wow, that's a late one.

 

[surfboardz26]

wow, congrats. 2 sr omega's and an orpheus. you must be pretty happy right now.

So you prefer these over the orpheus? You got me thinking about a next purchase damn it... (if its even possible to aquire)

Let us know if their is a difference in the sound between the two sr omega's.

 

[nextcube]

Quote:

Originally Posted by surfboardz26 Let us know if their is a difference in the sound between the two sr omega's.

If you are referring the to the two stator support types, that would be quite hard to do, since the few of SR-Omega owners all have the cartwheel-shaped plastic supports. All the pairs that I have encountered over the years have had the transparent plastic cartwheel-shaped plastic supports. However, There really shouldn't be any difference, since the two types are acoustically identical. They only stiffen the stators, keeping them rigid and flat.

As a final note, I think that the aluminium stiffeners are the exception to the rule (I have personally only seen the picture on http://staxt2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/stax8.htm. So, rather than debating whether two types of SR-Omegas exist, I would think that the "aluminium stiffener type" was just a deviant footnote variation in the production. Keep in mind that the SR-Omega was developed and produced in-house and had some production difficulties concerning quality control and high production costs.

In other words, don't focus on something as trivial as the material of the #$!@¤! cartwheel-shaped stiffeners.

 

[wualta]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl Wow, that's a late one.

492 is a high serial #? Holy hysteresis! how many of those things did they make? And if they made that few, is there any question why the Old Stax went under? Imagine the production costs on that one. Unlike anything that came before except for the headband, plus tighter tolerances, probably... Omegad!